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Memoirs of a Southern Evacuee - part 2

by Ken Sadler

It became a choice of finding suitable accommodation or returning home as many others had done to a very uncertain future as far as education was concerned.

It came to my notice that a boy living a few doors from me was also told that his days in Camps Lane were numbered, and was required to seek alternative accommodation. This boy was Phillip Cook who at the time was not a great friend but a member of the school class. I was aware that, like me, he had also been a choirboy in Southend and suggested that we should approach the Rector of St Peters Church, the Reverend D. Guinness, to ask if it would be possible to live at the Rectory.

When visiting the Rectory for the first time, we were greeted by the housekeeper and taken to meet the Rector in his study where he happened to be preparing his sermon for the following Sunday. We were greeted very pleasantly and given a cup of tea whilst explaining our situation. Without hesitation the Rector said that we would be very welcome to stay and could move in as soon as the arrangement was agreed by the school authorities.

As I recall, it was only a matter of a few days when we packed our belongings and became residents at the Rectory. A very nice room at the front of the house with single beds had been prepared for us and we were made very comfortable.

Before we arrived only three people occupied the Rectory. In addition to the Rector, there was a housekeeper, Miss Soderstrom, and her mother who was an octoganarian and confined to a wheelchair. Various staff i.e. cook, maids, gardener etc. did not live in but came from the village daily.

The Rectory was stone built and probably Victorian in design. Recent photographs show some major modifications to the structure. I can see that the building has been made wider when viewed from the front. In its original form in 1941, the accommodation was not as extensive as it appeared when viewed externally.

An extension was attached to the rear of the house, built in red brick which was known as the servant's quarters. This section of the property was completely empty, the rooms on the upper floor contained racks and pallets for the storage of fruit. The main part of the house contained a very large cellar.

The grounds around the house were quite extensive, consisting of lawns and flower beds at the side of the house facing the church and to the rear of the property. The front of the building was hidden from the road by massed rhodadendron shrubs and a number of very substantial trees. A driveway from the road was situated at the left side of the building and led to an orchard, kitchen garden and various outbuildings including a garage and storage sheds.

We very soon settled in to the completely new routine and was made very welcome by the Rector and his companions. We soon discovered that the Rector was a Cambridge MA and the ladies were also highly educated. All three had been missionaries in China for many years and spoke fluent Chinese in various dialects. We, of course, joined the choir which increased its members by some 30% fitting very nicely into the vacancies which existed.

School homework was given top priority and had to be completed before we were allowed to pursue other interests. We helped in the gardens and was given the Saturday morning task of mowing the lawns at the side and back of the house. The side lawn was used for croquet and we had a cricket wicket mowed on the back lawn for practice. The fact that a very good friend of the Rector who visited frequently was a Cambridge cricket blue was a great encouragement in keeping the practice wicket in trim and being coached in the art of spin bowling and batting.

We were paid a few pence each a week for keeping the lawns tidy. We considered this to be generous when at that period we could go to the off licence door of the Chesterfield Arms and obtain a mint humbug roughly the size of a golf ball for a halfpenny. Sweet ration books must have been introduced later in the war, because we were never required to produce one.

The orchard and kitchen garden were quite extensive and contained a large variety of fruit and vegetables so that the house was self supporting making full use of the storage facilities mentioned previously.

The residents of the house were all chess players to a high standard and we were taught to play. Both Phillip and myself were reasonable exponents but I don't think that either of us were Grand Master material !! They also played Mah Jong, which we used to watch but never attempted as it seemed far more complicated than chess could ever be.

We also obtained a complete table tennis set up; from where I don't know. There was not sufficient space in the house to play but we were told we could use the servant's quarters as a games room. Surprisingly there was not a room large enough in that section for setting up the table. At the Rector's suggestion, we knocked down a lathe and plaster wall between two small rooms on the upper floor. I remember using a bucket to transport the debris to the nearest window from whence it was deposited to the yard below.

We learned how quick it was to demolish a lathe and plaster wall. The installation of the table was a great success and we spent many hours with various friends mastering the art.

The door that can still be seen in the wall surrounding the church from the road, is the entrance to the heating boiler room. A job that we undertook on occasions was to keep this boiler stoked with coke from dusk on Saturday evening finishing just prior to the commencement of the Sunday morning service. We had a rota and every two hours throughout the night either Phillip or myself would walk through the yard from the rear of the church and stoke the fire. I cannot remember who was normally responsible for the lighting up and maintenance of the system.

Some time during the Summer of 1941 my father, who was in the RAF, came to visit at the Rectory. He came to tell me that his youngest brother had been shot down over the Channel and had not been recovered. My uncle was a regular RAF officer and had fought throughout the Battle of Britain in a Spitfire squadron. He had owned a ukelele of the banjo type which was played by George Formby and which my father gave me during his visit. I expect I drove everybody mad whilst I tried to learn to play the thing.

This uncle was the third that I was to lose during the war. A second had been had been killed at Dunkirk and a third at Singapore.

During the Autumn of 1941 my family had moved in Southend to a much larger house which I was very keen to see. Within a matter of weeks since occupying the new house, it was damaged by bomb blast from near misses. Really severe damage was done to the property later on in the war but this is a different story.

I decided I would like to spend a few days at home at Christmas 1941 but I had no intention of returning permanently. By coincidence an aunt who lived in Southend was drafted into war work and was posted to Burton upon Trent to work in the manufacture of aircraft seating. She only lived a few hundred yards from Burton railway station so I arranged to stay overnight with her and catch an early morning train to Derby for the onward connection to London. I recall that the journey home was very much quicker than the one in May 1940 on our way North.

At this time, of course, there were severe restrictions with food rationing being at an subsistence level; sweets and chocolate being rationed. Imports of fruit were understandably non existent and most people probably didn't see a banana for 5 years or more. Despite these irritating but relatively minor problems, I remember spending an enjoyable Christmas at home.

I cannot recall the journey back to Hartshorne but I would think I stayed at home until after New Year 1942 and travelled back early in January to commence the last year of my stay in the village.

Among the general public the ownership of a motor vehicle was not extensive prior to the war, and during the hostilities all civilian motoring ceased. The necessary petrol rationing books were only distributed to drivers on essential services. The delivery of bread, milk etc. was still undertaken extensively by horse drawn vans. The restriction extended to motorcycles and lawnmowers.

Owners of private vehicles were advised to raise them up on blocks to prevent contact between the tyres and the ground and wait patiently for better times. It may be difficult to imagine but these restrictions meant that in a village such as Hartshorne, where military activity was not involved, days could pass without a vehicle being seen to move in the village.

The Rector owned an Austin Seven car. His parish duties entitled him to a petrol ration of probably about a gallon a week, certainly no more. I took every available opportunity to accompany him when he was driving and persuaded him to let me drive the car from the gates up the Rectory drive to the garage. This did not involve any gear changing, and became a regular occurance. I also used to drive the car from the garage and he would meet me at the gate and take over.

I was pleasantly surprised when on one occasion he told me to stay in the driving seat and he would give me a lesson. Once started, this became a regular routine. The lessons always had to be fitted in with an official journey as there was not enough petrol for joyriding. 'Double declutching' in the absence of a synchromesh gearbox was an operation that had to be mastered but basically the Austin was very easy to drive and I thoroughly enjoyed the luxury of driving around the village and surrounding area without any other traffic. I was never allowed to drive unaccompanied but I had every confidence that I could have driven that car anywhere.

During the Spring of 1942. Phillip and I sat the entrance examination for the Southend Technical College. We were both successful and were informed that we would be joining the college, which was located in Mansfield, in early September.

One morning during the Summer of 1942 I was assisting a teacher in reorganising the school library when I received a message that Mr Jaques, the headteacher of the village school, would like to see me in his office. When I reached his office I was asked to sit down and he congratulated me on passing the entrance exam. He then explained that having consulted my teachers, who were in agreement with him, he had a proposition to put to me. As there would be little to occupy my school time in the few remaining weeks in the village, would I like to help him by taking a number of his 5 year old pupils and teaching them to read ? Very flattered to be asked to teach at 13.5 years, I agreed.

He informed me that there would be a class of about a dozen pupils, and I would not be located at the village school but in the small hall behind the Bulls Head. This is the hall that I mentioned before in connection with the Whist Drives.

A blackboard was installed and I was given a few piles of books suitable for 5 year olds of 'The Cat sat on the Mat' variety, and within a few days I made a start. I was given no instruction whatever but was aloowed to work it out for myself as we went along. I remember the class consisted of about 10 girls and 2 boys. They were a lively bunch as one can imagine but they gave me no trouble at all. It was very enjoyable for me and I hope for them a useful experience, although I cannot remember how many of them learned to read or the standard they reached.

I was thanked profusely by the headmaster when I left the village in September to go to Mansfield so it was probably not a complete fiasco!!

I cannot remember the journey to Mansfield but I went to stay with a Bandmaster in the Salvation Army.

He was not at home when I arrived but suddenly appeared whilst I was talking to his wife and daughter. After we were introduced he said "Do you like boxing ?". Before I could answer, he threw me a pair of boxing gloves and said "We'll soon find out !!" We went into his back garden and had our first sparring session. He loved the sport and became a very good coach to me as we always found time for a few rounds of sparring each day I stayed with him.

He was then going to teach me to play an instrument in the band and he brought a cornet home for me to learn to 'blow'; unfortunately he never had the time as the college moved back to Southend in October 1942 and I stayed in Mansfield for only a month.

When looking back over more than 60 years, it is remarkable how some events are so clearly remembered whilst others of probably equal significance at the time are completely forgotten. It is noticeable that of various journeys I made, I can remember nothing, not even the means of transport.

What is not to be forgotten is the fact that leaving home in 1940, and living in Hartshorne for over 2 years, enabled me to obtain a standard of education and a subsequent lifestyle that I may otherwise not have enjoyed. As a bonus, of course, I learned to drive a car and the lessons received from the Rector were the only ones I ever experienced.

My thanks go to Colin Herbert, who manages the Hartshorne village website, for allowing me this opportunity to reminisce about this important period of my life. Thanks also to all the readers of this article which I hope you have found of some interest. Finally thanks to my youngest son, Ian, who has been most instrumental in getting me to do this in the first place, for typing up my manuscript/s and liaising with Colin.

Ken Sadler June 2005

... return to part 1

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